On the sounding range of a 1-m wavelength radio acoustic sounder

The sounding range of a RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System) for remote measurement of the atmospheric thermal profile is determined both by the structural peculiarities of the system (wavelength, size of antennas, acoustic and radar power, etc.) and by the properties of the atmosphere (turbulence, wind, temperature and humidity). In this report we experimentally investigate the effect of antenna size and the number of cycles in the acoustic pulse on the range of a metric RASS (acoustic wavelength ∼1 m). We find good agreement between theory and experiment.